AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED 



BEFOTtE THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 



RUTGERS COLLEGE, 

O 



JULY 27th, 1852, 



ON THE DAY PRECEDING THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT. 



BY ./ 

REV. ABRAHAM POLHEMUS, 

OF HOPEWE1I, X T. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OP THE ASSOCIATION 



PRINTED BY JOHN A. GRAY', 97 CLIFF, COR. FRANKFORT STREET. 

1852. 



*? 






New-Bbunswick, July 28th, 1852. 
Rev. Abraham Tolhemus: 

Dear Sir : — I have the pleasure of transmitting to you the following extract 
from the Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association of Rutgers 
College for the year 1852 : 

" On motion by Cortlandt Parker, Esq., it was resolved, That the thanks of the 
Alumni be presented to Rev. Abraham Polhemus for his extremely able and useful 
address, and that a copy of the same be requested for publication by the Associa- 
tion." Respectfully yours, 

DAVID BISHOP, Sec. 



Hopewell, K Y., August 5th, 1852. 
David Bishop, Esq. : 

Dear, Sir: — Permit me, through you, to express to the Association my thanks 
for the very flattering terms in which they have been pleased to speak of my 
address. Their kind expression I cannot but think was induced more by their own 
awakened interest in behalf of our Alma Mater, than by any thing in the address 
itself. I yield, however, to the wishes of n.y fellow Alumni ; and if its circulation 
should extend the generous spirit of those who have requested its publication, its 
object will be accomplished. 

For yourself personally, accept the assurance of my sincere regard. 

Yours, very respectfully, 

ABRAHAM POLHEMUS. 



^tottSJS* 



Gentlemen of the Alumni Association : 

Permitted once more to assemble within these walls, 
consecrated by the memory of pleasant hours and hal- 
lowed associations, allow me to congratulate you on all 
the cheering auspices that render this day one of high 
promise to our beloved Alma Mater. From the first 
days of our organization until now, the sons of Rutgers 
have never had occasion to say with more emphatic 
confidence, " The night is far spent, and the day is at 
hand." Brave hearts and true have long battled with 
a variety of difficulties incident to our position, and 
somewhat complicated relations ; but they are permitted 
to rejoice with us this day that they have not run or 
labored in vain, and that the long anticipated success 
is beginning to crown their efforts. 

You may lay it down as a general maxim, even in 
matters where the application is any thing but compli- 
mentary, that success commands friends. The season 
of greatest trial is shared by the few, and well-wishers 



6 

stand aloof in the hour of doubtful enterprise ; but 
when once the undertaking bids fair to make its way, 
despite the opposition of its foes and the neglect of 
those who should have lent a helping hand, then it 
gathers friends from every quarter, and the true policy 
is not to repel them. We welcome then this day the 
gathering of friends from whatever direction, and in 
their coming we read the verdict that our institution 
has triumphed, and henceforth they stand ready to bid 
it a God-speed, and help it on by their cheerful, vigor- 
ous, and united co-operation. I trust that in the 
expression of these sentiments I speak that which will 
meet the unanimous response of my fellow Alumni ; or 
if there should be any dissent from the representation 
of the past, that there is but one heart and one voice 
as to our determined policy for the future. 

An old philosopher has said : a Let us give the past 
to oblivion, the present to duty, the future to Provi- 
dence." To two of these suggestions we could readily 
assent. We are always ready to give the future to 
Providence, especially if we give the present to duty ; 
but we can never consent to give the past to oblivion. 
The past and the future are too intimately connected 
to consign the former to forgetfulness. The past is the 
mirror of the future. " The tiring that hath been, it is 
that which shall be ;" and he would prove but a poor 
philosopher who did not suffer the former days to 
instruct him, and gather from their experience those 
lessons which constitute man's only real foresight, and 
from the progress made that encouragement which 
proves the best stimulus to human effort. Our present 



stand-point, be it great or small, is nothing except as it 
is linked with the past ; it bears no prognostication for 
the future except as it marks our progress or decline ; 
and it is upon these rather than upon any present con- 
dition that we base the calculation of our future. The 
question is not so much where we are, as whence Ave 
came ; not so much what we are, as what we have been, 
what we are doing, and what our destination. And 
the facility or means by which we have reached our 
present point will best determine whether we shall ever 
reach a higher. 

Permit me then, gentlemen, to take a cursory view of 
the past history, the present condition, the prospective 
future of our Alma Mater, and the duty incumbent 
upon us to make that future what it should be. The 
institution whose eighty-first anniversary we are now 
celebrating owes its origin to the ministers and elders 
of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church. That 
Church, while the Colony of JSTew-Netherland, as it was 
then called, was under the government of the States 
General, was the established Church, and considered 
as a branch of the Church of Holland. Its ministers 
were for a long time furnished by the parent Church, 
which exercised no small control over it. The first 
house of worship built by the Dutch in the Colony was 
erected within the precincts of the old fort at New- 
York, in the year 1642. Their church records date 
from 1639. But while the churches multiplied, and 
the doctrines of grace were faithfully preached, and 
her ministers were characterized by learning and piety, 
there was no higher judicatory established in this coun- 



8 

try than a Consistory until the year 1737. In that year 
some of the prominent ministers of the Church met in 
the city of New- York, prepared and matured a plan 
for an assembly of ministers and elders, a body that 
should be subject to the Classis of Amsterdam, (to 
which the Dutch Church in North America was subor- 
dinate,) one whose powers should be siruply of advice 
and fraternal intercourse. This assembly, or " Coetus," 
as it was called, proved wholly inefficient for accom- 
plishing that which its originators anticipated ; and the 
desire for an independent Classis in America, with full 
power to examine and ordain ministers, became preva- 
lent among the more active and intelligent portion of 
the ministers. This was opposed by the mother Church 
and not a few at home, and became at length a bone of 
contention that threatened the very existence of the 
Dutch Church in North America. The Church, with 
few exceptions, was divided into two great parties, 
called the " Coetus " and " Conference," the former con- 
tending for an independent organization in this coun- 
try, the latter wishing to remain subject to the Church 
of Holland, and indisposed to acknowledge any as 
ministers but those ordained in the fatherland. It was 
a long and bitter war, characterized by genuine Dutch 
obstinacy. The two parties entered into the strife, each 
as if Christ's kingdom on earth and their souls' salva- 
tion depended en their success in the conflict, leaving 
no doubt in many cases that on both sides there were 
rightful members of the church militant. 

The Colony of New-Netherland surrendered to Great 
Britain in 1664. Towards the middle of the eighteenth 



century the English language began gradually to gain 
ground among the Dutch churches. Colleges had also 
been established in some of the neighboring colonies ; 
and churches of other denominations had adopted 
means for the instruction of their youth, and were in the 
habit of examining and ordaining their own ministers. 
The Dutch Church, denied the exercise of these powers, 
felt exceedingly straitened in her position. The expense 
of obtaining ministers from Holland was no inconsider- 
able item ; and as the ocean was not then traversed by 
steamers, and the world had not become infected with 
that spirit of haste which these and other appliances 
have since infused into it, it sometimes happened that 
not months but actually years elapsed between a call 
and a supply. Congregations could not be consulted 
in the choice of ministers, and sometimes an individual 
would be thrust upon them who proved most unaccept- 
able. From these and other sources which we have not 
time to mention, the Ccetus party were so strengthened 
in their position that they determined to make provision 
for that ecclesiastical independence which they were 
resolved to maintain, and they formed the plan for the 
erection of a College in this city for the express pur- 
pose of preparing young men for the Gospel ministry. 
They accordingly obtained a charter from George III., 
through Governor Franklin of the Colony of New- 
Jersey, in the year 1770, incorporating this institution 
under the name of Queen's College. 

The first meeting of its Board of Trustees was held 
near the Court-house, in the county of Bergen, and Dr. 
Hardenbergh, the pastor of the Dutch church in this 



10 

city, was chosen its first President. " Dr. Hardenbergh," 
says one of his historians, " was an American. Although 
he had not been fayored with the same advantages in 
the early part of his ministry which some of his co- 
temporaries enjoyed, yet with a powerful mind and 
habits of persevering application he made such progress 
in knowledge that he was justly esteemed a great divine. 
He was ordained by the Coetus, and was the most dis- 
tinguished and able supporter of that party. His piety 
was ardent, his labors indefatigable, and his ministry 
greatly blessed." He died in this place, deeply lamented, 
in 1792 ; and with the death of its President the ex- 
ercises of the College were suspended. Four years pre- 
vious to the obtaining of the charter for the College, 
there went over from this country to Holland a young 
man by the name of John H. Livingston to prosecute 
his studies with a view to the Gospel ministry. During 
his residence in Holland he gained the consent of the 
parent Church to a plan for the separate ecclesiastical 
organization of the Church in this country. That con- 
sent was on the express condition that the Dutch Church 
in America should in the constitution they formed make 
ample provision for a Theological Professorate, as the 
Church of Holland could not and woidd not acknow- 
ledge or maintain any connection with a Church which 
did not provide herself with an educated ministry. In 
1771, one year after the return of Mr. Livingston to 
this country, the church of New- York, of which he had 
assumed the pastoral charge, and which happily had 
never been identified with either the Coetus or Confer- 
ence party, at his suggestion issued a circular letter 



11 

inviting all the ministers, with an elder from each con- 
gregation, to meet in convention for the purpose of 
effecting a reconciliation. The movement was produc- 
tive of the happiest results; an entire reconciliation 
was effected among all parties, and Dr. John H. Living- 
ston was unanimously appointed Theological Professor. 
That appointment received the full approbation of the 
Classis of Amsterdam, and among the most active and 
distinguished promoters of the plan of union, and the 
appointment of Dr. Livingston to the Theological Pro- 
fessorate, Dr. Hardenbergh, the first President of 
Queen's College, stood prominent. 

The College, we have said, suspended its operations 
at the death of its President, in 1792. Its Trustees, 
however, preserved its charter, and it experienced a 
partial revival in 1807, when overtures were made by 
its Trustees to the General Synod for a union of the 
Theological Professorate with the College, wherein it 
was proposed that the Theological Professor should 
become its President. This movement was not foreign 
to the original charter, which provided that its " Trus- 
tees should elect, nominate, and appoint a Professor in 
Divinity, who shall and may read lectures in Theology, 
instruct the students in the science of divine truth and 
the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures ; who also may 
be the President of the College, or not, as the Trustees 
shall see meet and convenient." A covenant was made 
between the parties, §20,000 were raised to endow the 
Professorship of Theology, and Dr. Livingston removed 
to this city in 1810, and became the second President 
of Queen's College. We may say of the College 



12 

during all this period that, being unendowed, (for 
during all the time of Dr. Livingston's Presidency the 
whole amount of its means was ability to sustain " half 
a Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philoso- 
phy,") receiving no patronage from the State, its pecu- 
niary embarrassments were such that its Trustees were 
compelled again and again to suspend its operations. 
This state of things continued until the death of Dr. 
Livingston. But while the literary institution, under 
the pressure of circumstances, in those days which tried 
men's souls, declined again and again, there were those 
who, with sweet confidence in the God of Providence 
and the Promise, expected that it would yet live and 
prove a blessing. Of that number the venerated 
Livingston was one. When one of his students ex- 
pressed to him his fears that the Theological Seminary 
might follow the College in its decline and fall, he 
replied, with the confident look of a prophet : " Not so, 
my son ; I know it shall live, and the College shall 
revive, for the foundations were laid in the faith and 
the prayers and amid the tears of a little band of the 
followers of Jesus.' Oh yes, we prayed and prayed 
again ; I know that they shall live." We are witnesses 
to-day that the faith and confidence of the dying patri- 
arch was not misplaced. Full of honors and of years, 
this good and great man entered into rest in January, 
1825. 

Dr. Livingston was succeeded in the same year by 
Dr. Milledoler, the third President of the College. He 
was appointed by General Synod to the Theological 
chair, made vacant by the death of Dr. Livingston. At 



13 

the time of his appointment the College was not in 
operation, but the conviction was forced upon his mind 
that the well-being and perhaps the very existence of 
the Theological School depended upon the resuscitation 
of the College. But how was this to be effected ? The 
College was unendowed. The funds for a second Theo- 
logical Professorship had just been secured. Dr. Mille- 
doler believed that the thing might be accomplished by 
raising the amount forthwith for a third Theological 
Professorship, and obtaining gratuitously the services 
of the Professors in the Literary Institution. This plan 
he proposed to his colleague, Dr. John De "Witt ; and 
any one who ever had the good fortune to know that 
beloved and gifted son of the Church, can well realize 
how heartily he would enter into any arrangement 
designed to promote the cause of truth and science. 
He at once freely consented, and the same having been 
suggested to some of the Trustees, was approved, and 
gave rise to the covenant entered into between the 
Board of Trustees and General Synod.* The funds for 
the endowment of the third Theological Professorship 
were secured. Among the most active and successful 
solicitors of that fund was our present Professor elect, 
Rev. John Ludlow, D.D. ; and of the aggregate amount 
then raised, not less than $ 10,000 were contributed by 
the clergy. Others gave of their abundance, but these 
of their penury. Many of them, when they gave, 
handed over the little savings of years. Like the 
widow, they " cast in all the living they had." They 

* For this covenant see Minutes of General Synod for September, 1825, 
pp. 20-24. 



14 

subscribed their hundreds andj?xa<^ them ; and of some 
of them so subscribing I am ready to affirm, that if 
prompt payment of bills incurred for the necessary 
support of their families had been demanded, they 
would have been compelled to have sold portions of 
their scanty libraries, or the more scanty furniture of 
their households. Such was the spirit of the men who 
revived the College in 1825, in connection with the 
Seminary, and such the gifts they brought. Let their 
memory be cherished, and let their example be held 
worthy of all imitation. Ours was, indeed, an ancestry 
of hope ; let us prove ourselves worthy of it by per- 
fecting their work, and carrying it out to a fuller con- 
summation. 

In the following year the Rev. Dr. Cannon was called 
to the Professorship of Ecclesiastical History and 
Church Government, in the place of Dr. Selah S. Wood- 
hull, who had filled the Professoral chair but three 
months when he was called to his rest and reward. To- 
gether, Drs. Milledoler, De "Witt, and Cannon continued 
their labors, instructing both in the Seminary and 
College ; the President being the Professor of Moral 
Philosophy and the Evidences of Christianity, Dr. 
De Witt Professor of Belles Lettres and Rhetoric, and 
Dr. Cannon of Metaphysics and Philosophy of the 
Human Mind. These, with Robert Adrain, LL.D., 
Professor of Mathematics, and the Rev. W. C. Brown- 
lee, D.D., (one of the most distinguished preachers and 
polemics of the age,) Professor of Languages, Greek and 
Latin, constituted the Faculty ; and at the closing term 
of 1826, they reported the number of students at 



15 

thirty. Dr. Adrain, whose reputation needs no en- 
dorsement from me, having received and accepted a 

call to the Professorship of Mathematics in the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, was succeeded in 1826 by the 

present incumbent, Dr. Strong ; and Dr. Brownlee, in 
the following year, receiving a call to the Collegiate 
Church in Xew-York, resigned his Professorship, and 
was succeeded by Joseph Xelson, LL.D. The last 
named Professor was at the time of his appointment, 
and had been for a number of years, totally blind : but 
with great powers of memory and thorough acquaint- 
ance with the studies of his department, he conducted 
the exercises of his room to the very general improve- 
ment of his students and acceptance of the Board. I 
remember him well ; how he would sit. with his thumb 
upon the dial of his watch, marking the minutes as they 
passed, allowing to each student his allotted portion, 
and the facility with which he would instantly detect the 
least mistake in the reading of the text or the transla- 
tion. And I remember, too. that nice ear by which, 
with his class sitting in alphabetical order, he would 
detect the location of the slightest whisper ; and when 
rebuking an individual by name for the annoyance, it 
was rare indeed that the person charged had an oppor- 
tunity of entering a protest against the justice of his 
suspicions. He died in 1830, and was succeeded by 
Eev. Dr. McClelland, who, in turn, was succeeded by 
Professor Ogilby, Dr. McClelland having been appointed 
successor to Dr. John De Witt, who died in the midst of 
his years and usefulness in 1831. Professor Ogilby was 
succeeded by the present incumbent. Dr. Prondfit. Our 



16 

Professorship of Chemistry was not established until 
1831, (when the Trustees were so fortunate as to secure 
the services of Dr. Lewis C. Beck,) and our Professor- 
ship of Modern Languages at a still later period. 

The first College exercises were held in a building 
opposite the present residence of Dr. Janeway, which 
was afterwards removed near the " Pottery," and is the 
one now known as the Lancasterian School. The present 
building was erected in 1809. When Dr. Milledoler 
assumed the Presidency in 1825, it was in an unfinished 
condition ; the east wing alone had been completed. 
The west wing was occupied by the teacher of a gram- 
mar school. There was no chapel, neither were there 
any finished lecture-rooms in the centre of the build- 
ing, — nothing but the rude stone. The principal 
article of furniture in the room in which the Board of 
Superintendents met to examine the Theological stu- 
dents was a large carpenter's work-bench. The Library 
contained but few books, mostly Dutch, and the Philo- 
sophical Apparatus consisted of a single spy-glass. It 
was about the commencement of Dr. Milledoler's labors 
that the name of the College was changed from Queen's 
to that of Rutgers.* The act of the Legislature sanc- 

* The name of a noble republican, immortalized by the sacrifice of large 
patrimonial possessions, which for the love of country he abandoned to her 
enemies. From the heights of Harlaem he looked back on his fair inherit- 
ance, stretching along the blue waters of the Sound, and breathed the noble 
sentiment and devout prayer : " For the love of liberty, I leave all and go forth 
poor and an exile ; but if the God of my fathers shall ever permit that I sit 
down again in their ancient hall, then shall all this wealth be held as a 
tenure at will for His glory." "Holy vow, answered by God, and nobly re- 
deemed by its author and these who are coming after him."— Dr. Wyckoff^s 
Alumni Address. 



17 

tioning the cliange bears elate November 30th, 1825. 
Having, with his associate Professors, brought the 
institution into successful operation, its number of 
students averaging from sixty-five to eighty, Dr. Mille- 
cloler resigned the Presidency of the College in 1840, 
and was succeeded in that office by the Hon. A. Bruyn 
Hasbrouck, LL.D. Dr. Hasbrouck was the first layman 
called to preside over the interests of the College. His 
appointment was made by the Trustees, independent of 
any action on the part of the General Synod. The 
choice was one well calculated to promote the interests 
of the institution. It not only enlarged its corps of 
Professors, but enabled the Board to introduce a new 
department of study — that of International and Consti- 
tutional Law. In the following year Dr. Milledoler, 
feeling the need of respite from the labors of a long 
and active life, resigned his Professorship, and was suc- 
ceeded by the present incumbent, Dr. Samuel A. Van 
Vranken, a son of the Church, beloved for his own and 
the fathers' sake, appointed by the Synod as Professor 
of Didactic and Polemic Theology, and by the Trustees 
as Professor of the Evidences of Christianity. Having 
filled the office most acceptably for a period of ten 
years, President Hasbrouck resigned it, cordially co- 
operating in the call made upon the Hon. Theodore 
Frelinghuysen, then Chancellor of the University of 
New- York, to return once more to the bosom of his 
native State, and preside over the institution whose 
" foundations were laid in the faith and prayers, and 
amid the tears of his fathers." Dr. McClelland, resign- 
ing his office a year ago, was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. 



18 

Campbell, who will bring no less efficiency to Ms 
department than that which characterized his pre- 
decessor. The venerable Cannon, prostrated by disease 
and the infirmities of age, tendered his resignation at 
the last meeting of General Synod. But Synod 
could not accept the resignation of one who had so 
long been an ornament and a balance-wheel to the in- 
stitution. They declared him Professor Emeritus, and 
directed their Treasurer to continue to him his full 
salary. They feared that his sands of life were nearly 
run, and their prayer was that the unseen hand of the 
Invisible might gently smooth his passage to the tomb, 
and that when his light went out, it might, like the 
morning star, gently fade away amid the coming light 
of heaven. That prayer is answered. Ours has been 
the melancholy privilege this day of uniting with the 
devout men who carried him to his burial. We have 
laid him in his last resting-place, beside his kindred and 
those fellow-laborers who bore with him the heat and 
burden of the day. " Blessed are the dead who die in 
the Lord." Those who have sat under his instructions 
can say, as they look upon that canvas,* There is a 
man who never forgot the dignity of his office ; who, 
with the courtesy of the gentleman and the wisdom of 
the sage, mingled the kindness and the affection of a 
father. His successor, Dr. John Ludlow, in accepting 
the appointment, only returns to the scene of former 
labors, and, we trust, will bring a warm heart, as we 
know he will a well-furnished mind, to the duties of his 
office. 

* A fine portrait of Dr. Cannon adorns the College Chapel. 



19 

Gentlemen, if I had time I should like to speak of some 
of the fruits of the institution. I would just say that 
among the names of our Alumni are to be found those 
who are respectably and usefully filling up the field of 
their appointed labor. They are to be found among 
the ministry of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, German 
Reformed, Associate Reformed, Congregational, and 
in the Dutch Reformed Church, constituting a large 
proportion of their number. They are to be found 
among our most respectable lawyers, physicians, and 
merchants. Some have been called to Professorships 
in other Colleges and Seminaries ; others are distinguish- 
ing themselves by their contributions to sacred and 
polite literature. 

And there are those " who, sworn to man's eternal 
weal," left 

" Kindred, home, and ease, and all the cultured joys 

Of ripe society, 

Went forth," from Eutgers' halls, 
11 A noiseless band of heavenly soldiery, 

To tell the heathen of his birthright, and in his hand 

To put the writ of manumission, signed 

By God's own signature ; 

High on the pagan hills to plant Immanuel's cross, 
And in the wilderness 

Of human waste to sow eternal life." 

Some of these were, but are not, and their sepul- 
chres even are not with us. The loved and loving 
Abeel sleeps among his kindred ; but the indefatigable 
Thompson, the ardent Pohlman, the self-denying Stry- 
ker, sleep in the far distant land, where the hand of 
the stranger hath laid them. These, with others still 
living and laboring, are fitting fruits of an institution 



20 

whose second President gave the first impulse to the 
cause of Foreign Missions in this country. 

Such, gentlemen, is a review of our past history ; and 
whether you look at the objects contemplated by the 
founders of the institution, the Christian influences 
which have ever been around it, the men who have 
filled its professoral or presidential chairs, the fruit it 
has produced, or the good which it is now fitted to 
accomplish, there is nothing to cause us to regret our 
relationship, much to stimulate to deeds and efforts 
worthy of it. The College, as appears from its Charter, 
owes its origin to "the ministers and elders of the 
Dutch Church, taking into serious consideration the 
manner in which the said Church might be supplied 
with an able, learned, and well-qualified ministry." 
The Church of Holland was distinguished among the 
churches of the Reformation for her well-trained theo- 
logians. Her universities were the lights of the age ; 
and many were trained there who afterward became 
highly distinguished in their own and other countries. 
People are sometimes disposed to speak slightingly of the 
Dutch ; but in so doing, they only betray their igno- 
rance and folly. If men would search for deeds of high, 
holy, and intelligent patriotism, let them go to the an- 
nals of Holland. Let me remind you of the memo- 
rable siege of Ley den, which it endured in 1573-4, from 
the Spaniards, under Valdez. When the burgomaster 
who had charge of the town was urged by the Spanish 
commander to surrender, he replied in the name of the 
inhabitants, that when provisions failed them, they 
would devour their left hands, reserving their right to 



21 

defend their liberty. And when, at the end of six 
months, the people having consumed every animal, 
root, and even weeds, and the living had become too 
weak to bury the dead, they became frantic with hun- 
ger, and demanded of the burgomaster, peremptorily, 
bread or the surrender of the town, the heroic man 
answered ; " I have sworn to defend the city, and by 
God's help I mean to keep that oath." " Bread I have 
none ; but if my body can afford you relief, take it ; 
tear it in £>ieces, and let those who are most hungry 
share it among you !" The clamorous multitude stood 
abashed, and retired in silence. The dykes had been 
cut by order of the Prince of Orange, who preferred 
giving back the land to the sea rather than their cruel 
invaders. "Man's extremity was God's opportunity." 
The winds changed, and the waters came rushing up over 
the country, even to the very walls of Leyden; and 
those Spanish bloodhounds, who had boasted that it 
was as impossible for the Dutch to save Leyden out of 
their hands as to pluck the stars from heaven, were 
driven out of their intrenchments, hundreds perishing 
in the rising waters. But now marh the sequel of my 
story. When the Prince of Orange visited Leyden, 
and, with a view of rewarding the citizens for their 
bravery displayed on that occasion, gave them the choice 
of two privileges, exemption from certain taxes, or a 
University, they said, " Give us the University." No- 
ble choice ! That University earned for Leyden the 
appellation of the Athens of the West. It still stands, 
and for nearly three hundred years has been a monu- 
ment of their high-soulecl patriotism. And when the 



22 

descendants of these men came to tliis country, the} 7 
brought their schoolmasters and their ministers with 
them ; and, as the charter of Queen's, now Rutgers, 
College testifies, they desired "an able, learned, and 
well-qualified ministry." 

The history of the past is well calculated to endear 
this institution to the heart of the Dutch Church. It has 
educated a large proportion of her ministry. It has been 
an important nursery to her Theological School ; and 
the men who are now becoming among the most enter- 
prising of her ministry, zealous for the extension of her 
bounds, and the increased piety and intelligence of her 
members, are among the warmest friends that we num- 
ber. If the College owes its existence to the intelli- 
gence and piety of the Dutch Church, it has long since 
repaid the debt, and in turn has laid the Church under 
no small obligation to promote its interests by every 
means in her power. That obligation we believe she 
will not repudiate ; and when once it is fully recognized, 
and the institution is fairly put on the footing on which 
it should be, it will be no longer a question whether 
our Alma Mater shall take her proper position among 
kindred institutions. Her sons will glory in her name, 
and the Church and the State will be alike proud of 
their offspring ; I mean that kind of pride which will 
lead them to sustain it. And when once the State of 
New-Jersey and the Dutch Church give it that pat- 
ronage which her Alumni ought to secure in these two 
respective fields, the best wishes of its friends will be 
realized, and we shall be better fitted than ever to do 



23 

justice to all others that may choose to cast iu their lot 
with us. 

But while in some respects this College may be called 
the College of the Dutch Church, be it remembered, it 
has never been characterized by ary thing of a secta- 
rian nature. On the contrary, its Board of Trustees, 
in filling its professoral chairs, have never given the 
least occasion for the charge that they were influenced 
either by a sectional or bigoted spirit. Our Chair of 
Languages is filled by a Scotch Presbyterian, and his 
predecessor came to us from the shades of Columbia 
College, and left us to fill a professoral chair in the 
Seminary of the Episcopal Church, to which communion 
he belonged. He was a gentleman and a scholar. And 
that he did not forfeit caste by his temporary sojourn 
with us, is evident from the testimonial lately given by 
the distinguished Bishop of New-Jersey, who, among 
other afflictions of this mortal life, accounted that to be 
chief that a certain well-known document " reached him 
on the anniversary of the day which separated him 
from his beloved Ogilby in the flesh." Our Professors of 
Belles Lettres and .Rhetoric and Chemistry will have to 
trace their national descent to some other land than that 
of Holland. And any one who last year entered our 
mathematical room, and saw in a simple wheel, properly 
adjusted, an illustration of Galileo's theory, more sim- 
ple and yet quite as clear as that afforded by the pen- 
dulum which Fouchalt set in motion under the dome 
of the Pantheon, might have known that the presiding 
genius of that department came from the most inven- 
tive branch of the American family, and have learned 



24 

that a Yankee, under proper Dutch culture, is capable 
of demonstrating, even to a Frenchman, "that some 
things can be done as well as others." And if our 
worthy President bears a Dutch name, surely the Dutch 
Church and the State of New- Jersey will regard our 
institution with no less favor on that account : one of 
New-Jersey's honored sons, a descendant of one of God's 
faithful ministers, long since gone to his rest, but whose 
fruit remaineth. Said Dr. Alexander, of Princeton: "If 
you wish to find a community characterized by an intel- 
ligent piety, a love of order, and all that tends to make 
society what it should be, seek it among the people of 
Somerset and Middlesex. And their present character," 
he added, " is owing very much, under God, to the faith- 
ful preaching of the gospel by old Dominie Frelinghuy- 
sen." A name honored in the Church, in the State ; 
and if the best wishes and efforts of not the least intel- 
ligent portion of the nation failed of placing him in the 
chair of the Vice-President, let us congratulate our- 
selves that we have borne him past the chair of a Vice- 
President to the Presidency itself. 

And now, gentlemen, what do we want, to make our 
future what it should be % We want every thing right, 
in-doors and out of doors. Professors, like " bishops, must 
have good report of them that are without," and also of 
them that are within, for the insiders will soon be the 
outsiders ; a simple little fact, that is too often lost sight 
of. We want our Professors to be what they should 
be ; and I speak the more plainly on this point, because 
it is the honest conviction of my heart that every one 
of them is entirely capable of doing both justice and 



25 

honor to his department. I do not stand up here arro- 
gantly to dictate to my superiors in age, wisdom, and 
experience ; but, if I may be allowed to throw out a 
passing hint, let it be taken for what it is worth, and 
let it not be thought that the mere saying of what a 
thing aught to be, is an implication that it now is not 
what it should be. We deem it of immense impor- 
tance to the success of our institution that the demand 
made upon her undergraduates, both as to the general 
tenor of their deportment and the preparation of their 
studies, should be such as to secure in after-life the con- 
viction that they were faithfully and honestly dealt 
with. We would have both the discipline and require- 
ments of the institution to be such, that when a young 
man leaves these walls, his should be the conviction, 
which it takes but a little time to ripen when it is just, 
that here is a system of discipline and instruction which 
he approves, which his better judgment could cheerfully 
and honestly commend to his friends, the junior mem- 
bers of his family, or, if God should spare him to see 
the day, to his own children. Let our Professors com- 
bine present conciliation with future approbation; in 
all their demands have an eye to ike future man as well 
as the present stripling^ regarding with deeper interest 
ike future rather than \ke present verdict. A company 
of young men, trained under such influences, would con- 
stitute a body of A lumni whose love and affection for 
their Alma Mater would strengthen with increasing 
years, and wo^ild prove a mighty, zealous, and effective 
host, ready at all times to rally in her behalf. He must 
be a sad creature indeed who can ever think well of a 



26 

system that suffered hini to pass the best and most im- 
portant years of his life in a state of undisturbed stu- 
pidity and indolence; and a sadder friend or father, 
who would peril his friends or children by a like regi- 
men. Nothing can ever be lost by a proper demand of 
all that is right ; much is jeoparded by the neglect of 
it. Indeed, I have never known a young man, distin- 
guished by what should characterize his position, to 
speak in any but the most respectful terms of the Pro- 
fessor who demanded due preparation and thorough 
study, and as he entered his room, his thoughtful and 
respectful attention ; while he would invariably speak 
slightingly of the facility with which another could be 
"dodged" even were he himself the most "artful of 
dodgers." And, indeed, such is the ordinary sense of 
honesty, and such, the general perception of what is 
right and fitting on the part of young men, that I 
would as lief form an estimate of the manner in which 
a professorship was filled from the students, as from 
any other source whatsoever. If the student is making 
progress, he will not withhold the credit from his in- 
structor; if, on the contrary, his natural indolence or 
inattention is not conquered, and his movement is retro- 
grade, he will be sure to lay the blame at some other 
door than his own. And now, gentlemen of the Alumni, 
if any should ask, What has this to do with our duty ? 
I answer: Some of you have reached an age, and at- 
tained a position, which entitles your counsel to at least 
respectful consideration; and if any of you should 
ever attain the conviction that in any of the depart- 
ments of our College there were things that might and 



27 

should be remedied for the best interests of our Alma 
Mater, and those committed to her care, give the season- 
able hint in the proper manner and in the right spirit, 
and it will be time enough to think any chair might 
have a better occupant when you find its possessor 
indisposed to listen to his friends. 

Well, with all right in-doors, what do we want out 
of doors ? And surely you who look back a score of 
years, or even half a score, can say that matters are 
very different from what they were. Two handsome 
structures have arisen, the one on our right hand, the 
other on our left — the President's house and Van Nest 
Hall. May the former always be, as it ever has been, 
distinguished by the Christian courtesy and urbanity of 
its inmates. Long may the latter stand ; and when a 
generation arises to ask, Why called Van Nest Hall f 
let it be answered: To commemorate the name and 
services of a long-tried, devoted, and liberal friend of 
the institution ; one who never faltered even in its 
darkest hour, and who lived to see in its successful opera- 
tion, the fulfilment of his hopes, his efforts, his prayers, 
and his most generous contributions. A new fence 
adorns our campus, very different from the one which 
in other days proved a sore temptation to every 
passer-by to give it a " lift downwards," and in whose 
total and final fall (occurring somewhat mysteriously, I 
believe, in a single night) every lover of the College 
most heartily rejoiced. The passing traveller will, I am 
confident, view with pleasure the improvement, and 
will say of it, as we often say when passing a place 
which gives evidence of the taste, care, and thrift of its 



28 

occupant : " It looks as if somebody lived there." Well, 
gentlemen, we have the house and the artisans, and 
what we want more are the tools and materials to work 
upon. Our College Library is not what it should be. 
It should speedily be increased by hundreds and thou- 
sands of volumes. I mean volumes of books that are 
books. Our philosophical, astronomical, and chemical 
apparatus is not what it should be. We have not kept 
progress with the times. Our number of students 
(although our last accession was the largest ever occur- 
ring in a single year) is not what it should be. We 
want money and we want men. These are called the 
sinews of war. We would use them in the best of wars. 
To secure these, we want united co-operation — a pro- 
voking of one another to love and good works. Very 
many of our Alumni have entered upon a profession 
that forbids any thing in the shape of worldly emolu- 
ment; and from this portion, much in the shape of 
direct pecuniary aid is not to be looked for : but there 
are others, successful in mercantile and professional life, 
who need only to feel one with another that they will 
not stand alone in any effort they may make in behalf 
of their Alma Mater, who need only to be assured that 
they will be numbered with the ™ noxko^ to come for- 
ward cheerfully and promptly, and make duty a plea- 
sure. It affords me great satisfaction to say that the in- 
itiative in this matter has been taken ; that a few of our 
Alumni from the neighborhood of Newark, with some 
friends, secured last year not less than twenty scholar- 
ships of $500 each to our institution ; and that ball must 
be kept in motion. Who is willing to-day to give it an- 



29 

other turn, and to keep it turning till we shall all be 
satisfied with its accumulation ? The good accomplished 
in this world is very much the result of example, and 
the leaders in any good enterprise are worthy of all 
honor. So far as my own observation goes, I think 
that one generous man will generally make about a 
dozen other generous men; and one mean man will 
ordinarily make about fifty even meaner than himself; 
and they are welcome to their majority. I can only say 
that there were very few mean men in College in my 
day; and if some of them will only be as generous 
with their own cash as they used to try to be with that 
of their worthy fathers, the funds will be forthcoming. 
I have not the time to advocate the plan of scholarships, 
but who, to whom God has given the means, would not 
esteem it a privilege, by a yearly contribution of thirty 
dollars, to afford instruction to a mind that may yet 
become a peerless gem in the field of literature, or a 
polished shaft in the armory of truth ? Every mind 
thus trained may be expected in its turn to train others ; 
extend the benefit received, and thus the good you do 
will be perpetuated, live after you. It will be the most 
enduring monument you can rear to your memory. 

There is a way in which such scholarships may be 
used as prizes to excite to a noble and healthful emula- 
tion. Where a scholarship is given, and the donor has 
no one individual to whom he wishes the benefit thereof 
to accrue, let him place it as a prize to be won by the 
best scholar entering the Freshman from the Grammar- 
school, or to be claimed in each higher year by him who 
has made the best progress in the former, either for his 



30 

own benefit or that of some individual (under certain 
restrictions) whom lie shall nominate. We believe that 
this is a matter in which our American Colleges are far 
behind those of the Old World. There, throughout the 
whole of the student's course, prizes in the shape of 
books, medals, scholarships and fellowships are used as 
incentives to intellectual effort. Here, with but few ex- 
ception?, nothing awaits the most painstaking and dili- 
gent student but perchance an honorary speech to be 
awarded at the very end of his course. We see the 
best men and the best institutions of our land calling 
out intellectual effort through the medium of prizes. 
Many of the best tracts that have ever issued from the 
press, and some of the very choicest volumes of Chris- 
tian literature, have been called forth as prize essays. 
Let the same instrumentality be brought to bear upon 
the College, and who doubts but that it would excite to 
a generous emulation, and elevate the tone of its scholar- 
ship ? Many an individual really needing, but some- 
times too high-spirited to receive aid in the ordinary 
channels, might thus secure it, in a way compatible with 
the feelings of the most sensitive nature, and at the 
same time in a manner calculated to win the respect and 
admiration of his noblest associates. There may be, in 
the minds of some, objections of an undefined nature to 
the introduction of any system of prizes ; but after ma- 
ture deliberation and consultation, I am constrained to 
believe that, compared with the benefits accruing, they 
would never for a moment be thought of. Let the ex- 
periment be tried. Say to the Rector of your Grammar- 
school, or to the Principal of some respectable academy 



31 

in your neighborhood, " I have a scholarship, the benefit 
of which I offer as a prize to your best scholar entering 
Rutgers College." You will thus not only place the in- 
stitution prominently before the academies, but at the 
same time you will bring out students, and such students 
as will live, we trust, to do honor to their Alma Mater. 

Our Board of Trustees, at their last regular meeting, 
j^assed a resolution that it was expedient to raise the 
sum of $60,000 for the better endowment of the Col- 
lege. It was not contemplated to raise this sum chiefly 
from the Alumni, but principally among those who felt 
that their affinities either of church or state linked them 
most closely to this institution. But, gentlemen, we shall 
assuredly greatly facilitate that movement if we our- 
selves are up and doing according to our ability. There 
is much force in the maxim, "The gods help those who 
help themselves." He who helps himself shows that 
he is worthy of being helped. Our Board of Trustees 
are animated by a spirit that seeks the best interests of 
the institution ; and as they fill up the vacancies from 
time to time occurring, they are now calling into their 
corporation those who, in the nature of things, must 
feel most deeply their obligation to labor for the wel- 
fare of the College. If I mistake not, the election of 
Trustees a year ago introduced six new members into 
the Board, five of whom were Alumni. This is as it 
should be. When the children are come to man's estate, 
why should the inheritance be committed to the guard- 
ianship of strangers \ 

I said there was a class of Alumni from whom we 
should expect but little in the way of pecuniary con- 



32 

tributions ; but these are not the least honored of our 
number, and laboring in their appropriate sphere they 
may prove most effective in their co-operation. They 
are wielding an influence for time and eternity ; and if 
they are of one mind, and are enabled to bear uniform 
testimony as to the capacity of the College for furnish- 
ing a good and solid education to the young men in- 
trusted to its care, equal to that of other institutions ; 
if they can tell of a corps of Professors equal in talent 
and energy to that of any other ; if they can conscien- 
tiously recommend, there are none whose position affords 
a better opportunity for securing any number of stu- 
dents that we may deem desirable. And I appeal to 
this portion of my fellow Alumni, (not omitting the 
others,) and ask if they will not bestir themselves in this 
matter. Will you not look around you, and make each 
one an effort to secure at least one student, more if you 
can ? If there is any thing that stands in the way of 
your influence in this respect, speak it right out, brother, 
and we will try and disabuse your mind if the preju- 
dice is unfounded; or if matters are not as they should 
be, we will try and make them right, and, God helping 
us, we will do it. You will never mend a matter by 
standing at a distance and venting upon it either your 
sneers, your groans, or your maledictions. The better 
way is to take hold, encourage to a " pull altogether" in 
the right direction, and so doing we shall soon put affairs 
in such a position that no man shall venture to decry 
them. The more students we can gain to the institution, 
the more friends ; the more friends, the more money ; 
and "money," says the wise man, " answereth all things." 



;>>3 

With money we could increase our library; Ave could 
enlarge our philosophical, astronomical, and chemical 
apparatus ; we could make mineralogical, geological, 
and other collections, that would be vastly instructive; 
we could enlarge our corps of Professors. All thi^ is 
not the work of a day, or to be effected by the fiat of 
a resolution ; but it is all perfectly practicable, and can 
be effected by a faith very far short of that which is 
needed to remove mountains. Until it can be accom- 
plished, let every man, animated by a proper filial affec- 
tion to his Alma Mater, secure whatever of books, phi- 
losophical apparatus, or collections for our museum, that 
it may be in the power of his hands to do. 

Let me venture another suggestion. There are many 
who will feel that it is not in their power to contribute 
for a scholarship. Would it not be a pleasure to some 
such, by clubbing together, to contribute as members of 
a class or otherwise? I should esteem it a pleasant 
sight, when passing the eye over the shelves of the 
library, to see upon such a shelf " a remembrancer from 
the class of 1830," or in .our museum a case containing 
11 contributions from the class of 1840 ;" another marked 
" contributions from the class, of 1845 ;" or a gratifica- 
tion to learn that some others had combined to present 
our philosophical department with some appropriate 
gift. We should then have an object before us, and one 
which would often afford to the most modest a ground 
for soliciting a gift, where we otherwise would not have 
felt at liberty to make the application. These would 
constitute solid contributions, impart a noble example, 
and in the aggregate not only supply a great need, but 

3 



34 

give weight and character to our institution. I know 
at this very time two gentlemen, one an Alumnus of 
the College, the other not, who are making each a valu- 
able collection of works upon particular subjects, which 
they intend shall ultimately grace the shelves of our 
library. Now give me a hundred such hearts beating 
with warm and generous emotions for our Alma Mater, 
and they will prove fruitful of expedients whereby to 
advance her best and highest interests. It would be 
worth coming up here once a year to look at them, and 
catch a spark of good generous fire from their nature. 
Such hearts we want, and such hearts we must have. 
Their influence would be felt through every fibre of the 
institution, imparting life, activity, energy to its every 
department. Who, then, is willing to lay such a heart 
to-day upon the altar of his Alma Mater ? It is not num- 
bers we want, but men ; men of pith and practical effort. 
It was not numbers that gave to Athens her high su- 
premacy ; it was the unconquerable will of those few 
determined spirits who directed her councils and fought 
her battles. The age in which we live demands energy, 
earnestness, perseverance ; and if an institution be not 
one that aims to keep progress with the age, it had better 
keep behind the scenes, and not adventure itself to the 
public gaze. People want to know what we are, and 
what we have in us, and woe to us if we can't abide the 
scrutiny ! The days^of Eip Van Winkle are passed, and 
he who sleeps twenty years now had better never wake 
up again in this world. Gentlemen, pardon the freedom 
of these remarks. If I have spoken plainly, I have 
spoken honestly. I have only exhorted you to do that 



35 

\\ liich myself am willing to do. And I trust that men 
will never have occasion to say of any of the sons of 
Rutgers, what Christ said of the Scribes and Pharisees : 
" They say, and do not ; for they bind heavy burdens, 
grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, 
but they themselves will not move them with one of 
their fingers." 



"X. 



